1. Field
Embodiments relate to a surface inspection apparatus and method, and a slit coater using the same. More particularly, embodiments relate to a surface inspection apparatus and method capable of detecting foreign materials on the surface of a substrate so as to stably coat a coating layer on the substrate, and a slit coater having the surface inspection apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, thin films carrying out specific functions, for instance, an oxide thin film, a metal thin film, and a semiconductor thin film are coated on a substrate in the semiconductor manufacturing and imaging device manufacturing fields. Here, the coating layers are patterned through exposure and development as needed.
Methods of forming such a coating layer include spin coating, slit coating, and so on. In spin coating, a coating solution is dropped on a substrate and the substrate is rotated at high speed to form a coating layer. In slit coating, a slit coater having a slit-shaped nozzle that is longer than a width of a substrate moves along the substrate to coat a coating solution on the substrate. In particular, the slit coater perform moves a slit die or nozzle at high speed in close proximity to the substrate to be coated in order to secure process performance.
Since slit coating is performed without rotating the substrate, foreign materials may readily attach to the substrate. When the foreign materials are present on the substrate, process performance may be impaired and/or the slit die or nozzle may be damaged or misaligned when colliding with the foreign materials. For this reason, a device for detecting the foreign materials on the substrate is disposed in front of the nozzle in a direction in which the coating solution is supplied.